Followup on the Beretta 1301 Competition shotgun

You might recall Russell Phagan’s Beretta 1301 Competition article in RECOIL Issue 13. The 1301 Competition is Beretta’s semi-auto shotgun for 3-Gun competition. Russell got his hands on a 1301 shortly before competing in the 2014 Superstition Mystery Mountain 3 Gun Match and made a few personal modifications. If you haven’t already done so, you can read about those changes here, and in fuller detail in Issue 13.

More recently Phagan’s friend John Brooks used that same Beretta 1301 for Ironman in Tac Limited division at the Ironman 3 Gun 2014 (a long competition with the highest round count of any 3 Gun match in the US).

“Coming from the perspective of a shooter and a gunsmith, there are very few times I have been boldly impressed by a production gun. The Beretta 1301 Competition enthusiastically makes my list. To remain objective for the purposes of our evaluation of the 1301, I opted to conduct zero maintenance on the gun for the entire three days of shooting. The 1301 ran flawlessly despite being exposed to the talcum powder like sand on the range when left with the action locked open in racks and abandonment barrels.”